I walked out into my yard to find out that all the hard work I put into landscaping it and into my garden was been destroyed in just one night. This was sight is commonplace to me and my neighbors in my urban community. The culprit of the destruction is the whitetail deer. Throughout my whole life I have noticed that deer populations in urban areas always seem high. I have heard complaints from people about how deer have eating their gardens or destroying there expensive landscaping work. Also I have heard increasing reports of increased deer vehicle collisions in urban areas with high deer populations. On many mornings there is road kill scattered on busy streets. For these reasons I think an urban deer population control program should be implemented in suburban areas with high deer populations.
There are generally four methods that urban areas can implement when they want to control their local deer populations. One method is capturing individual deer and administering them contraceptive. In my opinion I think this method is ridiculous. This method does not immediately remove individual deer out of a population, but it also really expensive to implement. According to C.J. Winand, a whitetail biologist from Randallstown, MD, it cost about $359.00 dollars to administer contraceptive to an individual antlerless deer. A second method that is used is actually physically capturing individual deer and then relocating them. This method also is not practical since it is expensive to carrying this process out and it is hard to find a place to relocate the deer. Additionally this method is not practical because relocating deer can lead to the further spread disease among deer populations. A third method that can be used is hiring sharpshooters to pick off deer in urban areas. This method is somewhat more practical then the other methods, but also comes along with two problems. One problem is that it poses a safety risk to use firearms in urban areas and also this method is not perceived very well by the public.
The fourth option for urban deer control is implementing an urban archery hunt program to control deer in an urban community. In my opinion this is the best option for controlling deer numbers for several reasons. One reason I think this is the best option because it the cheapest program to implement. This option is cheap since it does not require a town to pay for contraceptives, sharpshooters, or for relocation of deer. Also this program can actually make money for a town since people might be willing to pay for the chance to have the opportunity to hunt deer in an urban area they live in. The program will provide further hunting recreation opportunities. Urban archery programs have been successfully implemented in other communities in the past. The link below for the Virginia DNR explains how an urban archery program has been successfully implemented in several large cities.
Many people might argue that an urban archery program is not practical because it would pose a safety concern to people in the communities they are implemented in. From my research though I have found no instances of anyone being injured areas where urban archery programs have been implemented in the past. Also I feel that if a person wants to participate in an urban archery program they should be required to go through hunter education. They should also have to go through a training program that teaches them how to safely hunt in urban areas. Urban archery hunt programs are the only practical way to control high deer populations in urban areas.
References
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. (2011). Urban archery season. Retrieved from http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/urban-archery/
6 comments:
I think you forgot to proofread - many grammatical errors. I would need to see a lot of evidence of urban deer populations causing major damage before I could support any of the 4 control methods described. I don't think any kind of hunting in an urban area is any safer than leaving the deer alone. I also think a cost-benefit analysis would need to be conducted because the cheapest control isn't necessarily the most effective.
Sorry about the grammar errors I accidently submitted my un-proof read version, instead of my final copy. There are plenty of studies that support that high deer populations in urban areas have negative effects and the costs of each of the control options I specified. Just Google any of the options or do a search in the library article database. Also I have experienced the damage deer can do first hand. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and the house I grew up in was next to a forest preserve. So I always had deer waking through my yard and destroying parts of it. The deer populations in the area I grew up in were extremely high and my town ended up hiring sharpshooters to cull the population. Additionally several urban areas, such Duluth, have implemented successful urban archery hunts without any one getting hurt in them. In order to participate in a Duluth urban archery hunt you need to pass accuracy and hunter competency test.
I strongly agree with your opinion that urban deer populations need to be managed. In Milwaukee County, an area that most Wisconsinites agree is very urban, 321 deer were reported to have been salvaged from the side of the road, victims to auto accidents, in 2010 alone (www.dnr.wi.gov). I also agree with your support of an urban archery hunt, however I can see it not being well accepted by the citizens of the city in which it would be occurring. The feds have done similar hunts using USDA-APHIS agents (we have a family friend who is one and has done so in cities in Minnesota), however these are highly trained government agents, not any old hunter. Something has to be done about the deer populations in urban areas, and an archery hunt would be a great solution, but it would have a long way to go before being accepted by the public.
You are correct about the archery program most likely not getting approval right away. When I was conducting research on the topic of urban deer management it seemed like most cities tried many other control methods , which turned out to be unsuccessful, before they finally implemented a urban archery program.
You are correct about the archery program most likely not getting approval right away. When I was conducting research on the topic of urban deer management it seemed like most cities tried many other control methods , which turned out to be unsuccessful, before they finally implemented a urban archery program.
You are correct about the archery program most likely not getting approval right away. When I was conducting research on the topic of urban deer management it seemed like most cities tried many other control methods , which turned out to be unsuccessful, before they finally implemented a urban archery program.
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